Wilmington Morning News - July 9, 1980
NL does it to AL again
By Hal Bodley, Sports Editor
LOS ANGELES – It's back to the drawing board for the American League.
After telling the world how it was going to take the 51st All-Star Game to the cocky Nationals, the American League limped out of Dodger Stadium last night a 4-2 loser.
The Nationals, after going down in order in the first four innings at the bands of Baltimore's Steve Stone and New York's Tommy John, used Ken Griffey's first All-Star home run to ignite the beginning of their comeback.
Cincinnati's Griffey, who also singled in the seventh inning, was named the game's most valuable player.
Jerry Reuss, the third National League pitcher, gained the victory, while John took the loss. Chicago's Bruce Sutter, who choked off any would-be American League rallies in the last two innings, gained a save.
The victory, watched by a record Dodger Stadium crowd of 56,088 on a pleasant evening, was the ninth in a row for the National League and 17th in the last 18.
"I had confidence this line-up would come out of it all along," said Pittsburgh's Chuck Tanner, who managed the Nationals. "You just cannot hold players like this down. Griffey got us going with that home run. It seemed to start the whole thing. Then, we just went at them."
Weaver allowed John to continue in the sixth inning, with all right-handed hitters coming up.
"John usually pitches against right-handed hitters in the American League and does very well," said Weaver. "I thought he was throwing the ball very well and I thought he would get them out.
"Losing tonight is very disappointing for me, especially since I was managing the club. We went out and did everything we could to win, but just didn't score enough runs. There's not much we can do about that."
Willie Randolph's two errors at second base were costly for the Nationals, especially Dave Winfield's bouncer that allowed the go-ahead run to score.
"Winfield's ball was a difficult play,' said Weaver. "If Willie makes it, it's the play of the game and may turn things around. As it turned out, we didn't make the big play tonight and that made a difference in the outcome."
When Sutter came into the National League clubhouse, Reuss congratulated him, thanking him for the save. Then, Sutter handed Reuss the game ball.
"You saved it you keep it," Reuss said.
"You won it you keep it" Sutter replied, making Reuss keep the ball. Reuss then asked Sutter to autograph it for him.
“I’m supposed to come in with a lead and hold it" Reuss said, referring to his victory. "That's the way it's supposed to work. It was an honor to be here and to play with these guys. It was just an honor to be on the same field with them."
For the first time since Denny McLain did it in 1966, Stone put the Nationals down in order in the first three innings, using only 24 pitches.
"I've always been tough in All-Star Games," kidded Stone. "In 1965, I pitched in the Ohio High School All-Star Game and was the winning pitcher. I just couldn't look at the National League line-up as a group. If I had done that, it would have seemed too big a task. One by one, I was able to handle nine guys.”
The Dodgers' Bobby Welch took over for starter J. R. Richard of Houston in the third and worked out of two-on, two-out trouble. Welch put the American League down in order in the fourth, but in the fifth, with two out, California's Rod Carew singled to right and Boston's Fred Lynn blasted a two-run homer to the seats just inside the right-field foul pole. The homer was Lynn's third in All-Star competition. Only Stan Musial with six and Ted Williams with four have hit more.
"I hadn't played in five days because of a hamstring pull," said Lynn. "I hit a fastball for the homer. Welch struck me out on a fastball the first time up. It seems like everytime I get a hit in the All-Star Game it's a home run. I hit one in the first inning last year in Seattle. Richard is the hardest thrower I've seen all year. But he was up high with most of his pitches."
"My arm felt great," said Richard, who threw 32 pitches in two innings. "I felt no fatigue or tiredness. I feel like I could have fone back out there in the third, but I only work here. I was hyperactive for the game; I was rushing my pitches, trying to do too much. That's why I was wild. I was nervous all day."
"It's a lot easier to catch J. R. than to hit him," said catcher Johnny Bench. "You know what's coming. He was fired up and throwing hard. He didn't have the control of his fastball, so he threw a lot of sliders."
Former Dodger John, now with the Yankees, put the Nationals down in order in the fourth and got the first two outs in the fifth before; Griffey blasted a 1-2 pitch to the pavilion in right-center.
The Nationals wiped out the American League lead with two runs off John in the sixth.
With one down, the Reds' Ray Knight singled to left and stopped at second on Phil Garner's single off Yankee Willie Randolph's glove at second. The Cardinals' George Hendrick ripped a single to center, with Knight easily scoring. John was then replaced by the Chicago White Sox' Ed Farmer. Randolph's error on Dave Winfield's grounder let Garner come in from second with the third run. After the Cards' Keith Hernandez beat out an infield single, the Phillies' Pete Rose was sent up and bounced into an inning-ending doubleplay.
The Nationals upped their lead to 4-2 off Toronto's Dave Steib in the seventh. Griffey singled to right , but was forced at second by the Reds' Dave Concepcion. With Montreal's Gary Carter batting, Concepcion raced to second on a wild pitch took third on a passed ball and scored on another wild pitch.
EXTRA POINTS – Major league baseball should take a lesson from the Dodgers on bow to put on an All-Star Game… The entire presentation was regarded by most baseball veterans as the best ever... Toni Tenille sang both the Canadian and American national anthems... The pre-game show was staged by Walt Disney Productions and consisted of more than 2,000 performers... The Dodgers unveiled their new left-field display board, a full-color video display system... Fourteen members of last night's two All-Star teams played for Tanner at one time or another... One player, the Yankees' Reggie Jackson, was with Oakland during the spring training in 1976, later being dealt to Baltimore before the season opened... The other 13 are Tommy John, Rich Gossage, Bucky Dent, Al Oliver, Jorge Orta, Ed Whitson, Jerry Reuss, Tom Burgmeier, Steve Stone, Dave Parker, Phil Garner, Jim Bibby and Kent Tekulve... Among the VIPs at the game were former President Gerald R. Ford, Atty. Gen. Benjamin Civiletti and Chip Carter, son of the current President... Tanner had Pete Rose take the National League lineup... Rod Carew's steal of second in the first inning was the first by either team since 1978.
Weaver’s instinct shines like stars
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Looking for all the world like a well-behaved choirboy unable to quash his enthusiasm, little Earl Sidney Weaver ran over to the elderly gentleman and pumped his hand.
"Mr. Hubbell, Mr. Hubbell!" he Said. "I'm Earl Weaver. I've seen you a thousand times. I wish you would pitch for me tomorrow."
For that instinct – knowing the right man at the right time – did Earl Weaver, manager of the Baltimore Orioles, the defending American League champions, came to be known as "Genius."
There he was, the night before he was to manage in the 51st All-Star Game, at a big baseball bash on a Hollywood movie lot. Stars and booze and pretty women all around – and what did Weaver do? He picked a 77-year-old man, Carl Hubell, out of the crowd.
The right man at the right time.
Forty-six years ago at the 1934 All-Star Game, New York Giants' pitcher Carl Hubbell worked a baseball masterpiece while starting for the Nationals.
With his weird, twisting reverse curve – screwball, they call it now – Hubbell struck out in order Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin. It was perhaps the greatest pitching demonstration in all of baseball, exhibition game or whatever.
And thus did Weaver's instincts lead him directly to Hubbell.
But this is 1980, and if Weaver's American League pitching staff of Steve Stone, Tommy John, Rich Gossage & Co. seemed less illustrious names than Hubbell, so was their challenge less formidable.
That American League Murderer's Row that Hubbell scroogied through in '34 was possessed of big bats and scary numbers: Ruth, Gehrig, Simmons, Foxx and Cronin finished the year with a combined batting average of .332 and home run average of 28.
"Those fellas all went straight to the Hall of Fame," recalled Hubbell, who was also enshrined.
"Earl Weaver," Hubbell commented. "Hell, I see him on TV all the time. I didn't think he'd remember me."
But he did, of course.
A genius always knows the right man at the right time.
Hollywood brings all stars together
By Joe Durso, New York Times Service
LOS ANGELES – Roger Maris stood beneath the stone pillars of the Roman Forum on a set of Universal Studios, precisely where Kirk Douglas played the title role in the movie "Spartacus" and not far from where Steve Garvey plays first base in Dodger Stadium.
Only in Hollywood, he reasoned. At least, only in Hollywood did the make-believe world of films collide with the make-believe world of baseball. And last night, the stars of both worlds mingled in the 51st midsummer gathering of the American and National League all-stars, a game that has grown into a spectacular in a sport that has t grown into a marketing business.
"We are in a business of illusion," the tour guide at Universal explained, and Roger Maris agreed.
So did Harry Dalton, the man who recast the Milwaukee Brewers into contenders. Dalton was aiming his , analysis at baseball, but he phrased it in the lingo of movieland.
"This is the right setting," he said, meaning the razzle-dazzle surrounding everybody's stars. "Baseball is the eternal, original American drama."
Only in Hollywood would they have stacked the deck so outrageously for the drama in this All-Star Game. The American Leaguers, who won 12 of the first 16 games in the series, now had lost 8 straight and 16 of the last 17. They were led by Earl Weaver, the James Cagney of the Baltimore Orioles, who was the manager the last time they won. But six of their eight pitchers were first-time performers as all-stars, and they took the field without such injured heavies as Jim Rice, George Brett and Paul Molitor.
They were classic underdogs and, if that wasn't enough drama for anybody's script department, the Dodgers supplied a cast of thousands.
And once again the story ended unhappily for the Americans as MVP Ken Griffey powered the National League to a 6-4 victory.
On Sunday, they staged a mammoth old-timers' reunion as a prelude to the All-Star Game. They brought back Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Roy Campanella and all those other boys of Brooklyn summers. Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays and Duke Snider joined arms while walking onstage from center field. Even Willie McCovey drew a standing ovation after knocking in a run for the San Francisco Giants in his final time at bat before making the last exit of his 22-year career.
On Monday, the stars of 1980 arrived for the third consecutive All-Star Game on the West Coast and the first in Dodger Stadium in 21 years. They were whisked to Universal City for a $100,000 evening with dinner for 1,700 served in the Spartacus Courtyard, a few yards from the facades of the silent stagecoach towns of the cowboy flicks and not far from the amphitheatre where Frank Sinatra was singing for the multitudes.
Finally, the main event got off to a clamorous start last night alongside the palm trees that fringe the bull pens of Dodger Stadium. Eight marching bands, dozens of Boy Scouts and hundreds of Disneyland characters filled the field before thei game. And the Dodgers unveiled a new television scoreboard behind the left-field stands that carried commercials and instant replays in color.
For an encore? The ball game, of course.
Roger Maris, standing where the Roman legions of the. movie had paraded, looked a little unlikely in his crew haircut and white summer suit This was 19 years after he had hit 61 home runs in one season for the New York Yankees and had broken, or at least bent Babe Ruth's record. But then, he concluded, baseball looked a little unlikely in this setting, too.
"You're not surprised," he said, "not in California. This is what it's all about now. If they don't lose sight of the game itself, it's great In 1961, instead of exploiting my home runs, and Mickey Mantle's, they did everything they could to downgrade them. They acted as though I was doing something wrong, poisoning the record books or something.
"Now they talk on the radio about the records set by Ruth and DiMaggio and Henry Aaron. But they rarely mention mine. Do you know what I have to show for the 61 home runs? Nothing, exactly nothing. Harvey Haddix pitched 12 perfect innings once, and at least he got 12 beer mugs. But now they're promoting the game like hell.''
Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon, who paid $21.1 million to buy the Mets last winter, appeared on the Roman street and were introduced to Maris. As if to prove his point about the evolution of the product, they promptly invited the old Yankees to attend the Mets' Old-Timers' Day in Shea Stadium in August.
"Even if you have to sit in a chair," Doubleday said, "'and hit a couple of long ones, we'd love to have you."
"Your guys are really playing good baseball," Maris said, embracing the new spirit of extravagance.
"Baseball,” Roger Maris said, "is changing because everything else is changing. I used to spend my life going from the ball park to home, then home to the park. Today, these guys have a lot going for them."
Frankenstein's monster stalked Count Dracula on the cobblestones of the Forum. Six Roman soldiers raised trumpets to their lips and sounded flourishes. Carlton risk of the Boston Red Sox walked past in a yellow sports shirt and a wide smile, marveling at the business of illusion. Only in Hollywood.
Schmidt, Rose deny drug-related report
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose denied yesterday knowing anything about a report that Pennsylvania narcotics authorities wish to question at least eight members of the Phillies team about the possibilty they may have acquired amphetamine pills illegally.
The Trenton, N J., Times reported earlier yesterday in a copyright story that Rose, Schmidt Greg Luzinski and Larry Bowa are among the eight athletes state narcotics agents want to question about an alleged acquisition from a Reading, Pa., doctor. The newspaper quoted law enforcement sources in its story.
"I have no comment whatsoever about that" said. Schmidt, shortly before the 51st All-Star game at Dodger Stadium. "I have no idea about it. It's totally ridiculous."
Schmidt, who first heard of the story when his wife phoned him in L.A., leads the National League in home runs with 21. He was selected by fans throughout the nation to start at third base for the National League, but didn't play because of a pulled hamstring muscle. He said he expected to return to the Phillies lineup immediately after the All-Star break.
"I don't even know the guy they're referring to," he said. "I don't know anything about anything. It's the All-Star break and we're one game out of first place. That's all I know and that's all that matters. Somebody is just looking for something to write about.
"It's sad papers have to resort to stories like that."
According to the story in the Trenton paper, agents from 'the Pennsylvania State Drug Law Enforcement Office will speak to the players this week. In addition to the current stars on the Phillies roster, the newspaper said, narcotics officials also plan to question several members of the team's minor league franchise in Reading about the possiblity some players received amphetamine pills from the same doctor, who wasn't identified.
The newspaper said that no criminal charges have been filed against the players, the doctor or "runner who allegedly distributed the medication for him. Of the players, all but Rose played early in their careers for Reading, a farm club of the Phillies.
"I don't know anybody in Trenton, I don't know anybody in Reading," said Rose, who played 16 years for the Cincinnati Reds before signing a free agent contract for the Phillies prior to the 1979 season. "I have no comment.
"I don't even know any doctors in Pennsylvania, the whole state. I think they got the wrong guy when they mentioned my name.
"Anybody who makes accusations like that better have his facts straight or he's in for a lot of trouble."
The doctor allegedly banded out prescriptions without the required physical or oral examinations of the players, the newspaper said. State law requires those examination before the pills can be handed out.
Phillies’ Boone named to compensation unit
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Major League Baseball Players Association named Bob Boone of the Phillies and Sal Bando of the Milwaukee Brewers as its representatives to a four-man committee, which will study compensation for, free-agent players who sign with other teams.
Elliott Maddox of the New York Mets and Scott McGregor of the Orioles were named as alternates. Bando and Boone will meet with two general managers, not yet named, to examine the question, which nearly precipitated a players' strike this season.
The players association, meeting on the eve of the 51st All-Star Game, approved both the basic agreement and pension benefit plans negotiated with the owners in May.
"The basic agreement was approved by 96.6 percent and the pension package won 98.6 percent approval," said Marvin Miller, executive director of the players association.
The owners approved the package last month.